notaphily, notafily  A particularly severe form of cancer,
con-tracted exclusively from handling filthy lucre. Fortunately, it is not catching for
papermoney collectors, in fact, it isn't catching on, period.

note, notes  Papermoney, papermonies, qv. Or, paper money,
paper monies. This dictionary is biased toward using note to refer to a piece of
papermoney within this dictionary. We don't really care whether or not the
musically inclined, but syngraphically challenged, will rise up in protest.

Notgeld  Emergency money, in German. Specifically, a generic
term for the hundreds of thousands of local notes, issued in Germany and Austria, before,
during and after World War One. Most of the later issues were blatant money making schemes
"issued" primarily for selling to collectors, long after the emergency had
disappeared. The term has been extended to cover similar local issues in other countries
(Spain, Portugal, France, etc), and at later times (eg, the Spanish Civil War).

number  The reader may decide to spend a pleasant half-hour
studying the multitude of definitions in an unabridged dictionary. Here, we are concerned
only with numbers as they appear on notes and other syngraphic documents. Since even this
leaves us with a multitude of similar, hence sometimes confusing, things to discuss, we
have put it all into the following table.

TABLE OF RELATED
SYNGRAPHIC TERMS re NUMBERS

block
letter  See: block number.

block
number  That portion of a note's serial number, qv, which is incremented each
time the serial numerals, qv, pass their upper numerical limit; may be expressed in
numerals, letters, alphanumerics, or characters (Oriental, Arabic, etc); may be appended
to the serial numerals or printed in a different location on the note; usually applied by
letterpress simultaneously with the serial numerals. In some cases, eg, Japanese
Occupation notes of WW2, the block number or letter is used alone without any accompanying
serial numerals, either because the issuer did not worry about counterfeiting, or didn't
find the use of numbering machines economical.

plate
number  A number engraved into or otherwise made a permanent part of a printing
plate which identifies that plate, usually uniquely, and is used for plate accountability
and production control within the printing plant.

serial
number  A combination of numbers, letters, or other characters applied to notes
for accounting and control purposes, and composed of the block number (if present)
and serial numerals. If the block number is not printed
adjacient to the serial
numerals, the latter are often referred to alone as the serial number.

serial
numeral  That portion of a serial number which is incremented singly with
each new note to which it is applied. When used alone, the serial numeral is also
the serial number. When used in conjunction with a block number, the block number
and serial numerals together compose the serial number. Note that block numbers and
serial numbers can be numbers, letters, or characters, depending on the system adopted by
the issuer.

series
number  A number, letter, or combination thereof which identifies a particular
EDITION of a note issue. Often changed when only a minor change is made to the note, eg,
to the signature combination and/or date. See also: minor and major varieties.

numeral  A character, symbol, letter, or word, or a group of
any of these, expressing a number.

numismatics  The collection and study of coins and
related materials.

obsolete  Antiquated. Disused. Out of date. Out of fashion.
Possibly replaced by a newer version. But, without relevance to negotiability. Ergo, an
obsolete note may or may not be still redeemable. On the other hand, all non-negotiable documents are
obsolete as well. See also: current, negotiable, redeemable, demonetized, non-negotiable,
non-redeemable.

obsolete note (or currency)  A popular term for the vast
number of notes issued by many kinds of private banking institutions in USA, c1790-1865.
All obsolete notes, as well as all CSA currencies are now, of course, demonetized as well
as obsolete.

obverse  The front side of a coin or medal. Never used with
paper documents.

occident, occidental  West, western. Opposite of orient.

occupation note(s), or currency (-ies)  Notes issued
by the occupying government for the use by the local population; its own personnel may
also use them in dealing with the locals. Distin-guished from military currencies,
qv, issued strictly for the use of the troops. After WW2, for example, the Allies issued
occupation notes for Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Japan. During WW2 Japan issued
occupation notes in numerous countries in Southeast Asia. USA brown seals are not
occupation notes, as they are sometimes called, but special security devices, used also by
American soldiers. Similarly, USA yellow seals were used exclusively by American
soldiers in Africa, and thus can be considered the forerunners of Military Payment
Certificates.

Oesterreich  Austria, in German and Austrian.

omnibus issue  Stamps or coins, with an identical theme,
issued by more than two countries simultaneously. Stamp omnibus issues include the QEII
coronation issue, issued by all the then British Colonies and Dependencies. Coin omnibus
issues include the FAO coins. On the other hand, certain common theme stamp issues such as
Boy Scouts stamps, issued at various intervals by diverse countries, are merely topicals,
qv. Mercifully, no papermoney omnibus issues have appeared so far. The somewhat similarly
designed notes of certain French and Portugese colonial issues are not really omnibus
issues.

Operation Bernhard  A code name for a German World War II
plan to ruin the Bank of England, and hence the British economy, by producing high quality
counterfeits of BofE notes.

optical delusion  The seeing of something which is not there.
Syngraphic examples include The Devil's Head Note of Canada, The Vampire Note of Germany,
and The SEX Note of Seychelles. The possibility always exists that the designer
intentionally created something to play with the observers minds, for example, to make a
sociopolitical statement.

overprint  Additional printing on a note or stamp that was
not part of the original design. Overprinting may be applied by an authority different
from the original issuer. The coin equivalent is an overstrike (or a counterstrike).
Unofficial overprints are merely graffiti, qv. See also: surcharge, for a very specific
kind of overprint.

overprint authentication  A catalog of things attempted with
the hope of generating unearned profits by manipulating paper documents is light-years
beyond the scope of this dictionary. Moreover, the multitude and variety of techniques
used by expert authenticators is also beyond this book. There is, however, one technique
even a novice collector can use. Given that an overprint is one of the easiest things to
fake, and that this is very tempting if the overprinted note is substantially more
valuable than its plain counterpart, how does one decide the genuineness of an overprinted
note if he doesn't have a known genuine specimen at hand for comparison? If the note to
be tested is uncirculated, you're out of luck. However, if the note is well circulated,
while the overprint is sharp and its ink extends into the fibers of the creases, you know
that this is a fake overprint. A genuine overprint, you see, would exhibit wear similar to
the background, and the overprint's ink would be missing from the exposed fibers of the
creases. This whole discussion would fall apart if the "issuer" used also
circulated notes for overprinting. See also: rubber stamp overprints.